“Oh, hell!” said a listener, “don’t you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along?”

After the war was over, General Johnston inquired of me who was our chief railroad-engineer.  When I told him that it was Colonel W. W. Wright, a civilian, he was much surprised, said that our feats of bridge-building and repairs of roads had excited his admiration; and he instanced the occasion at Kenesaw in June, when an officer from Wheeler’s cavalry had reported to him in person that he had come from General Wheeler, who had made a bad break in our road about Triton Station, which he said would take at least a fortnight to repair; and, while they were talking, a train was seen coming down the road which had passed that very break, and had reached me at Big Shanty as soon as the fleet horseman had reached him (General Johnston) at Marietta

I doubt whether the history of war can furnish more examples of skill and bravery than attended the defense of the railroad from Nashville to Atlanta during the year 1864.

In person I reached Allatoona on the 9th of October, still in doubt as to Hood’s immediate intentions.  Our cavalry could do little against his infantry in the rough and wooded country about Dallas, which masked the enemy’s movements; but General Corse, at Rome, with Spencer’s First Alabama Cavalry and a mounted regiment of Illinois Infantry, could feel the country south of Rome about Cedartown and Villa Rica; and reported the enemy to be in force at both places.  On the 9th I telegraphed to General Thomas, at Nashville, as follows: 

I came up here to relieve our road.  The Twentieth Corps remains at Atlanta.  Hood reached the road and broke it up between Big Shanty and Acworth.  He attacked Allatoona, but was repulsed.  We have plenty of bread and meat, but forage is scarce.  I want to destroy all the road below Chattanooga, including Atlanta, and to make for the sea-coast.  We cannot defend this long line of road.

And on the same day I telegraphed to General Grant, at City Point: 

It will be a physical impossibility to protect the roads, now that Hood, Forrest, Wheeler, and the whole batch of devils, are turned loose without home or habitation.  I think Hood’s movements indicate a diversion to the end of the Selma & Talladega road, at Blue Mountain, about sixty miles southwest of Rome, from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport, and Decatur, Alabama.  I propose that we break up the railroad from Ohattanooga forward, and that we strike out with our wagons for Milledgeville, Millen, and Savannah.  Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people, will cripple their military resources.  By attempting to hold the roads, we will lose a thousand men each month, and will gain no result.  I can make this march, and make Georgia howl!  We have on hand over eight thousand head of cattle and three million rations of bread, but no corn.  We can find plenty of forage in the interior of the State.